The present invention relates to biopsy needles, and, more particularly, to an improved biopsy and brushing needle that can be used to obtain tissue samples of the parietal pleura for biopsy examination purposes and to more easily permit thoracentesis procedures. The present invention also provides a needle and method of using the same to facilitate a technique of brushing the parietal pleura for more effective tissue sampling.
In the course of carrying out an in depth examination of certain at risk patients, there is a need to obtain a biopsy of the parietal pleura, that is, the layer inside the rib cage and within the pleural cavity. Due to the closeness of the pleural cavity to the lung, it is often advantageous to take the biopsy from that parietal pleura in order to assess the condition of the lung since a biopsy of the lung itself is quite difficult and there is a real danger of puncturing the lung during the procedure. As such, resort is made to the use of a biopsy of the parietal pleura to remove a sample of that tissue and which is generally indicative of the condition of the lung and less dangerous to the patient.
In order to obtain a biopsy of the patient's parietal pleura, however, there are basically two devices that are currently available and widely used and each has certain drawbacks. Each of the current devices is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,110 of Wang as prior art to that patent. As described in the Wang patent, there is a Cope needle shown in FIGS. 1-3 and the further description illustrates a fairly complex and rigorous series of steps that must be carried out in order to obtain a sample of the tissue of the parietal pleura.
One of the features of the Cope needle is the presence of a hook located at the distal end of the Cope needle and which hooks the tissue from the parietal pleura to withdraw that sample. However, one of the drawbacks in the use of the Cope needle is that the use of a distally located hook in the needle is inserted through the rib cage to enter the pleural cavity, however it is sometimes difficult to determine precisely where the distal end is located when the needle is activated to obtain the biopsy sample. Thus the biopsy sample may be taken from the desired parietal pleura or may be taken from some other location within the anatomy of the patient.
The other biopsy needle, again referred to and described in the aforementioned Cope needle, is the Abrams needle and, again, the needle is inserted into the pleural cavity where the sample of the tissue is desired to be removed therefrom. With the Abrams needle there is a cutting mechanism that is actually located at the distal end of the needle and which is manipulated by the user to cut a portion of the tissue for subsequent removal and analysis. Again, however, with the Abrams needle, while effective, there is no positive indication when the distal end of the needle is properly positioned with the pleural cavity so as to remove the tissue from the desired parietal pleura and thus, it is possible, with that needle, to obtain a sample from some area of the anatomy other than the proper location within the pleural cavity.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a biopsy needle for obtaining a biopsy sample of tissue from the parietal pleura in a more predictable manner and to be sure that the sample is removed from the correct location within the patient and, further, where the procedure for obtaining that biopsy sample is relatively easy to carry out with accuracy.